The anniversary of your birth we celebrate… <br />In heat, in snow, and in rain and sleet <br />America and countries everywhere emulate <br />Some sighing, others crying, still others swearing and hating long after your death… <br />I want to tell my memory to hush talking about those old dreams of many rains ago: <br />Momma told her four girls to be careful of the ones you meet, day in and day out <br />white men prowled the gravel roads looking for a prey <br />“Girls, y’all run fast into the woods and hide, and don't come out <br />until he drives out of sight-or worst stay all night hiding out! ” <br />Memory, keep telling me bout what the old folk said about Emmitt Till’s body rising <br />From the river bottom so swollen ‘til nobody could make him out <br />As bright as daylight, I heard Momma’s tears raining hard in her sleep, <br />And her dreams dreaming loud and deep <br />“Have mercy on my soul they done killed that boy <br />I wish his fore-parents had jumped ship many rains ago! ' <br />Now, where can I go, a black widow, five boys, and four girls <br />Living off black soil and cursing the red clay that can't even make hay <br />Aside from the soil and red clay, forty acres and a mule, cows and hogs, <br />and chickens and all can’t be moved anyplace! ” <br />The rain slacked up. The arching rainbow still bends toward hope… <br />Women and men of all colors, celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, and his dreams! <br />' <br />Dr. King, many of your dreams have come true, still we’re dreaming your dreams: silently and out loud evermore
